A projection-type display device (projector) using a liquid crystal display device has an absorptive organic polarizer on the incident and emitting sides. That is, FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view describing a related art liquid crystal display device. In this liquid crystal display device, a drive transistor 5, pixel electrode 6 and orientation film are formed on a driving-side substrate 1. In the same device, an opposed electrode and orientation film are formed on an opposed-side substrate 2. The liquid crystal display device is formed by first attaching the driving-side and opposed-side substrates 1 and 2 together with a predetermined gap therebetween and then filling liquid crystal 4 between the pixel electrode 6 of the driving-side substrate 1 and opposed electrode of the opposed-side substrate 2. On the other hand, an incident-side organic polarizer 11 is disposed on the outside of the opposed-side substrate 2, and an emitting-side polarizer 12 on the outside of the driving-side substrate 1.
However, the organic polarizers 11 and 12 disposed on the incident and emitting sides entails the problems of color fading and image quality degradation with increasing light intensity. Color fading is caused by the breaking of the dye and iodine molecules contained in the organic polarizers. Image quality degradation results from the burning of the protective layer. In the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 10-133196, therefore, an organic pre-polarizer is provided to distribute the optical stress, thus alleviating such stress on the emitting-side polarizer.
Some liquid crystal display devices employ inorganic polarizers to avoid the aforementioned problem of light fastness and other problems with polarizers made of organic materials. A reflective inorganic polarizer may be used on the incident side. However, a reflective inorganic polarizer 3, if disposed on the emitting side or on the outside of the driving-side substrate 1, adversely affects the image quality as a result of the light returning from the polarizer striking the drive transistor 5, as illustrated in FIG. 8.
A possible solution to avoiding the impact of the returning light under consideration is to dispose the emitting-side reflective inorganic polarizer 3 diagonally relative to the driving-side substrate 1 as illustrated in FIG. 9. However, this solution leads to a large device configuration.
On the other hand, absorptive inorganic polarizers have yet to reach a level of practical utility due to their characteristic problems in the visible range (blue range in particular).